oglord - of course they do, I'm sure I've seen stuff along the lines of celebrity _____________ is Welsh because his great grandfathers half brother once had a pint of guinness in a Welsh pub and BTW did you know guinness is actually Welsh blah blah blah

oglord - of course they do, I'm sure I've seen stuff along the lines of celebrity _____________ is Welsh because his great grandfathers half brother once had a pint of guinness in a Welsh pub and BTW did you know guinness is actually Welsh blah blah blah

Worst examples of that off the top of my head -

Sophie Dahl - on basis that her grandad was born in Cardiff.

Eddie Izzard - on basis that he lived in Porthcawl for a few years as a youngster when his father moved there for work.

Naomi Watts - a few years living in Anglesey was enough for her to be Welsh. On that basis I'm a Brummie/Cockney.

Damian Lewis - grandparents from Carmarthen (although in fairness he does big up his Welsh connections)

Shocking when you think about it. Don't we have enough properly Welsh celebs to be proud of/cringe about without making spurious claims on others that are patently not Welsh. Can anyone think of any more?

Oh you're forgetting the biggest "Welsh" star: Kylie Minogue. Her mother was from Maesteg, don't you know - she talks about her Welshness a lot doesn't she *ahem*.

However, I think to some extent a few are "missing the point". Ireland's emigres and diaspora are often intensely aware of their Irish heritage. After spending time in Houston for a summer, I'd say very many Americans are intensely aware of their imagined or very dubious Irish connections (the number of Schneiders or Dubroknics I met claiming Irishness is surprising) too. But this gives Ireland a much greater profile and helps draw both tourism and business to the island, both north and south. Wales has a much smaller diaspora and in order to leverage the potential for it to work to our advantage we should do much more to cultivate at least some Welsh identity amongst these, even if they are only remotely connected. In fact we should work harder to do so than the Irish.

Oh you're forgetting the biggest "Welsh" star: Kylie Minogue. Her mother was from Maesteg, don't you know - she talks about her Welshness a lot doesn't she *ahem*.

However, I think to some extent a few are "missing the point". Ireland's emigres and diaspora are often intensely aware of their Irish heritage. After spending time in Houston for a summer, I'd say very many Americans are intensely aware of their imagined or very dubious Irish connections (the number of Schneiders or Dubroknics I met claiming Irishness is surprising) too. But this gives Ireland a much greater profile and helps draw both tourism and business to the island, both north and south. Wales has a much smaller diaspora and in order to leverage the potential for it to work to our advantage we should do much more to cultivate at least some Welsh identity amongst these, even if they are only remotely connected. In fact we should work harder to do so than the Irish.

I agree. The problem is that most of the Welsh diaspora was to England. And therein lies the problem. England has a problem with recognising anything Welsh as being positive. The Welsh in America seemed to disperse and vanish into the ether as they did everywhere else apart from Patagonia. I'm not sure why that is - perhaps it's to do with language? Once you lose the language you lose what you consider to be Welsh and so become native? Who knows?

There was a great article written by A N Wilson regarding this very question. He compared the amount of Englishmen who created an Irish heritage for themselves - Daniel Day-Lewis is a recent example - compared to those who created a Welsh one. John Cooper Powys was one of the few examples he could come up with, RS Thomas was another (although born in Cardiff he was very Anglo until he took on a Welsh persona that perhaps never existed except in his own mind). He concluded that it takes a certain contrariness to go down that route because it will inevitably mean their stock will be lowered in the eyes of the English whereas the converse seems true with the Irish.

He also likened the Irish and the English to a divorced couple, cordial and polite, past grievances gradually being forgotten as they forged their separate lives. The Welsh and the English he compared to a married couple stuck in a loveless marriage, constantly bickering, resentful and condescending to each other but too long in the tooth to part. Not sure I agree entirely but it's a great analogy.

Interestingly A N Wilson is quite a Cymruphile (is that is a word) but was sent dog sh1t and hate mail when he quoted a passage in an Evelyn Waugh book that was deregotary to Wales and the Welsh. The article in question was written to highlight Evelyn Waugh's boorishness and prejudice. Rather than reading the article some idiots with thin skins took it upon themselves to make us all look ridiculous. It's the same midset that can't wait to get upset at any perceived slight and makes us sitting targets for anyone who fancies a wind up. The WM are guilty of it and it really gets up my nose.